A guest blog by Rosa Joneses
The business world is constantly changing and employers are scrambling to find ways to keep up with the times. Today, many companies are offering employees the benefit of online courses after a new study by TalentLMS highlighted the importance of a vibrant learning and development (L&D) culture for employees. This shows enthusiasm for reskilling opportunities and skills-development training among workers who hope to better themselves or climb the career ladder.
The convenience of online courses has proven to be an effective way for busy office workers to learn, even if they are students. Those who study business-related courses at a higher education level are now able to take full degrees online. Online degrees in organizational leadership are made up of 100% coursework, which makes the courses much more flexible. This in turn opens them up to those who want to study and work at the same time. These courses cover topics such as conflict management and strategic communication which are essential to modern work. However, you don’t need to take a full degree to improve yourself as a leader. Instead, you can look towards further expanding your skills through these short courses below.
Leadership and Management Courses
This is a series of courses on topics such as operations management and the theory of management perspective and practice, all available on Open Learn. These are free and accessible online, which is great news for aspiring leaders who want to see whether they’ve got what it takes to be responsible for other employees. These resources are also marketed as a great springboard to determine whether you’d be interested in pursuing an actual degree or an MBA.
Mindfulness Courses
World-renowned business coach Peter Bregman says leaders often believe that strength is a refusal to show weaknesses. However, this is far from the truth. Leaders are humans with flaws who need to take mental and physical breaks as well. Mindfulness exercises, breathing techniques, stretching, and some dynamic movements are the different ways that one can reset during the day.
However, life will always inevitably catch up, and here, a helping hand is necessary to get by. Leaders can overcome their weaknesses by asking for help and building collective strength through connections. Instead of making you seem incompetent, this honesty is what develops the trust of employees. They’ll know that in their weak moments, they can rely on you as a leader to understand and pull them through a difficult moment.
This ability to ask for help stems from emotional courage, which Peter Bregman explains how to channel in his one-hour course. It is allowing yourself to become vulnerable and accepting that you are sometimes not in control. This inspires leaders to believe in themselves, and in turn inspires team members to believe in their leaders too, by providing actionable advice in embracing mistakes and addressing uncomfortable problems.
Teamwork and Core Value Courses
Robert Glazer takes his advice from his arsenal of leadership experiences as the founder of Acceleration Partners. For one, his workforce has been fully remote since 2007 and in an interview, he explains how team management in a remote environment needs core values that employees can remember without looking them up.
He cites when a woman was boarding a Southwest Airlines plane to Chicago when her son got into an accident in Denver. Employees automatically rebooked her flight online while the ground team offered a private waiting area — without a policy manual. Their seamless collaboration stemmed from the company’s core value to “connect people to what’s important in their lives through friendly, reliable, low-cost air travel.”
This shows how core values are guiding principles for employees’ direction. This takes time to process, however and requires deep introspective analysis. Glazer’s one-hour course will help guide your reflection and work over the ensuing weeks and months, by teaching you to refine your own list of core values that are applicable in your personal and professional life as a leader.
Leaders can choose the right course for themselves from the above options to continuously improve their performance and relationships with their employees. With passion and determination, leaders and team members alike are in for a fulfilling work experience in the long run.
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko via Pexels
